High Blood Sugar

High blood sugar is usually an indicator of diabetes, but it can also occur in healthy people temporarily in some cases.

High blood sugar

High blood sugar (hyperglycemia) means that the glucose (blood sugar) level in the blood is elevated, which is typically an indicator of diabetes.

Hyperglycemia means that the blood glucose is higher than 125 mg/dl while fasting. If this number is repeated several times, this usually means that the person has diabetes.

Causes of high blood sugar

• High blood sugar occurs due to the lack of insulin. This results from insulin resistance or pancreatic issues, such as an autoimmune disease, chronic pancreatitis, cystic fibrosis, or pancreatic cancer.
• People with diabetes may experience episodes of hyperglycemia due to not taking enough insulin, not taking insulin correctly, consuming carbohydrates in a way that isn’t balanced with the taken amount of insulin, the dose of the oral diabetes medications not being suitable, not being active physically enough, and the normal increase of blood sugar in the morning.
• People without diabetes can have high blood sugar in certain situations, like in physical stress (an injury or a surgery) or emotional stress.

Symptoms of high blood sugar

• The early symptoms of hyperglycemia are increased thirst and hunger, recurrent urination, blurred vision, and headache.
• The long-term symptoms of hyperglycemia are extreme tiredness, weight loss, skin infections, vaginal yeast infections, and slow-healing cuts.
• Chronic high blood sugar can lead to the damage of the blood vessels and tissues in the body, and this can cause retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy, stroke, heart disease, and gastroparesis. Moreover, acute high blood sugar can lead to diabetes-related ketoacidosis.

Diagnosis of high blood sugar

• Fasting glucose test.
• Glucose tolerance test.
• A1c test.

Treatment of high blood sugar

• For people with diabetes: reviewing the doses of insulin and other oral medications and asking about how they’ve been taken, modifying the diet, and exercising more.
• For people without diabetes: modifying the lifestyle and managing stress. Some cases may require medications.